PAST residents of Hayward Manor this week spoke of "deplorable conditions" they had to endure while living there during various times between 2001 and the mid-2006.It was typical, the women said, for them to endure dirty linen, blocked toilets and clogged drains. The property provided no relief from Bermuda's damp winters, had no warm bedclothes and was without laundry facilities. Rooms were not fitted with wardrobes. And, despite it serving as accommodation for eight, there was no common area and the kitchen was tiny.

The women were hired as temps by the property's owner, SOS Limited.

On salaries of less than $500 a week, they were unable to do much to improve their living conditions themselves, and allege that requests to their employer to do so brought threats of eviction or a lack of work.

"It was appalling," recalled one former tenant who contacted this newspaper after SOS personnel manager Maryanne Scott described Hayward Manor as being "in good condition".

"I'm wondering if they class their own homes in the same 'good condition' then? I doubt it somehow. Of course we could have purchased a lot (of what was missing) for ourselves — actually, we ended up having to in a lot of cases — but on $17 an hour, you're not left with much to go buying duvets with and, God forbid you get sick. You're not paid at all in those instances."

The woman said she moved into Hayward Manor on her arrival to the island.

"I can tell you this, I arrived to discover that my room had no wardrobe of any description although I was still expected to 'dress to represent' SOS in professional firms across the island. My clothes were hung on a bar in direct sunlight. They all subsequently became faded and ruined in the sun which is probably not a big thing to most people — but I was the one who had to replace them, not SOS. But for me it was more money down the drain. A fan? You should have seen them — big, industrial monstrosities that you could not have on at night or you would be unable to sleep.

"There was no heating in an extremely cold winter. There were no warm bedclothes and it was even more of an insult when SOS threw under the stairway some dirty looking, second-hand children's duvets for us to use — I don't think I'll ever forget the day I arrived back from work to make that little discovery. There were no laundry facilities. There was no living room area. There were three channels on a television with lousy reception most of the time. The bath and the toilet became blocked frequently. The kitchen was so small and shared among so many people, I rarely got to use it. There was no telephone to call home on. What on earth kind of archaic set-up doesn't even have a private telephone? There was only a coin-operated thing you could make local calls on — in a house where not one of the girls was from Bermuda."

The women said SOS applied a quaint sense of humour in its response to some of their complaints — a woman told last week how she was threatened with eviction while others shared how the company led them to believe they had put Hayward Manor up for sale.

This week, the temp threatened with eviction recalled how, during an especially cold winter, she and her housemates were also handed children's duvets for warmth.

"I remember us asking for duvets and blankets because we were sleeping in our clothes — it was that cold. First we were told they would think about it because 'we might get them dirty'. Then when we asked again, we were finally given used, dirty children's duvets with pictures of Pocahontas and other Disney characters. Honestly, they were in such a filthy condition that in the end we all had to buy our own bedding just to keep warm. Nobody used the duvets."

The greater problem, as explained by another former resident, was that people living there were there because they did not have an option.

"We are unable to afford alternative accommodation until we're paid a decent, permanent salary which more often than not, takes up to a year or more to secure," she said. "And the agency is fully aware of this."

SOS has vehemently denied the allegations, pointing to two recent inspections on November 10, 2006 and January 8, 2007 that revealed the accommodations to be clean, neat and in good condition and repair.

Last week, Ms Scott described Hayward Manor as such: "The lodging house holds eight bedrooms, four bathrooms and apartment kitchen. The agency outfitted each room with brand new bed, dresser, mirror, nightstand, television, fan, linen and towels."